Higbee Race Summary from the AMA Mid-Ohio Roadrace

July 18th-19th   2009

Prior to leaving for Ohio, Mitsu and I had our work cut out for us as we swapped the well-used motor for another fresh stock, crated motor.  Mitsu gathered his tools from Bartels’ HD and flew in from LA to Milwaukee on Wednesday night.  He immediately started working on the Buell1125R race bike in my garage.  I had previously removed the old engine and so the bare frame was ready for the new heart.  Mitsu clicked away at the project with the precision of a Swiss watch.  I only tended to a few areas of the engine installation. Leaving Mitsu from the distraction of my hands I focused on repairing bodywork, preparing wheels, sprockets, swing arm etc.  

Photo by Dan Lo of cornerspeedphoto.com

My 3 year old twins were having fun playing with us in the garage.  I only had to fetch a few tools from the front yard, LOL.  It quickly became bedtime for the kids so I tucked them in bed and went back to help Mitsu.  We worked all night and finally finished the bike, loaded up the trailer and were ready for bed around 5am on Thursday.  The alarm was set for 7:30am, 2.5 hours of sleep would have to do.  Unfortunately the kids beat the alarm by a few minutes and were up and playing in their bedrooms.  We  loaded the kids into the dually and with a 44ft trailer in tow, we set out for a 7 hour drive.  Okay here we go, all I need is a little Redbull and adrenaline. Thank God my mom was coming to the races to help care for the kids!

The crucial decision heading into Mid-Ohio was should I catch up on the mortgage or buy tires?  This weekend is a double-header so that means a huge tire bill to compete in the Daytona Sportbike and Superbike events.  As the AMA has increase parity, it too has increased the importance of new tires for all track sessions.  A few tenths of a second could mean several position further up the grid and farther away from the dreaded 21st position.  To ensure your best qualifying position and solid races, I estimate it takes at least $3700.  To max out the regulated tire allotment, and burn up some soft tires for a few extra tenths of second improvement in lap time, be prepared to dish out over $5000.  Now I’m sure that these costs are not considered high for those accustomed to running racecars, or even the motorcycle teams with 1 million dollar budgets, but for the privateers who fund their program from the purse money it’s a debilitating reality.  Especially when top 20 results for all four races will only gross $6000.

The Laguna Seca purse/Mortgage money ran out early and I need to thank my parents and Ozzie for contributing to the tire fund and getting us through the weekend.  I also want to thank all of the fans who purchased shirts through the higbee-racing.com website and showed up at the races.  There were so many people supporting me at Mid-Ohio, I couldn‘t give up, even as hard and dismal as things seemed.  I attacked every corner of every lap like I was running scared from a disaster.  Every corner was an opportunity to evaluate the limits of the tires and plan a more aggressive attack the next time around.  I not only found the limits but found myself riding past the limits of the tires all too often.  Frequently losing the front tire and falling down on the footpeg, fairing, and ultimately preventing a crash by putting my knee down and using more throttle.  Whether it was heroics or intervention, I felt fortunate not to crash out.  However it does seem that the TTR dirt riding is helping my riding abilities too, as I felt comfortable drifting the 1125R with both tires sliding evenly through a few corners.  

I also worked with the crew and we honed the bike setup throughout the weekend.  We struggled to find the best combination of front/rear tire balance, versus tire wear, while maintaining good cornering abilities.  Saturday’s setup was good for tire wear but compromised grip balance and wasn’t finishing the corners well.  In Sunday’s Sportbike race we went backwards in the setup and grip levels and balance were off in left field.  We finally got the setup right in the Sunday Superbike race and where able to click off some mid 1:28 laps.  The bike would finally turn, had good grip balance, but was a bit  harder on the tires.  The net result was a faster elapsed race time for the 23 laps, but the pace definitely slowed in the last part of the race.  Whereas the Saturday race setup was slower ultimately but was easier on the tires and allowed me to run consistently right to the end of the race.

Photo by Dan Lo of cornerspeedphoto.com

Overall the Mid-Ohio weekend was promising, with a 10th place finish in Sportbike race 1 and a 15th place finish in Superbike race 2.  I feel like we can claw our way back up into the top five with some sponsorship, bike development and a crap load of work!  I’m very frustrated with having to run a stock 1125R engine in the Superbike class.  It’s unrealistic to keep running the stock bike in Superbike and expect to always finish in the top 20.  So I am going to work hard to get onboard a competitive Superbike before the end of this year and see how far up the finish order I can get!  I either need to hop-up the stock Buell engine, by the grace of God and the powers that be somehow obtain a 40K Buell1125RR, or will have to ride “something else” in Superbike. 

Photo by Dan Lo of cornerspeedphoto.com

I really missed not having my fiancée, Marianne, trackside to help out, but it was nice to have other family members there along with plenty of friends and fans.  Even though not at the track, Marianne did an awesome job reporting on the races remotely via twitter.com.  I would like to give special thanks to my crew Mike Richter, Mitsu, Scott, Michelle, Paul, Tyler, Rosemary, Ozzie, and Mike. Mike R. did a fantastic job as crew chief once again.  Mitsu was extremely overworked but never missed a beat and kept the bike running without any issues.  Scott really came up to speed as he is more familiar with the maintenance and tire changing routines.  Michelle helped out in the pit area and cheered us on.  My dad managed the tires, fuel, and pit board, as well as offering the good father to son talk.  Tyler kept me hydrated and was my go-to person.  My mom, Rosemary, took care of my kids and cheered from the trackside.  Ozzie and Mike were always in there lending a hand, taking split times, and helping with pit transportation.  And as always racing wouldn’t be possible without my sponsors Bartels’ HD/Buell, Buell Motorcycle, Pilot Leathers, Shoei, Pit Bull, Dunlop, Sunoco, Traxxion Dynamics, EK chain, Vortex, and Pit Bull.  We also received some help from the James Gang / Hoban Brothers Buell racing team.  Thanks to everyone!

I’m off to CA to hang out with the SoCal Buell riders for a ride with their group in San Diego this weekend.  Other than that I’ll be busy training, searching out additional sponsorships, enjoying some time with Marianne, and preparing the bikes for the next round at Topeka on August 1st and 2nd.

A huge thank you to Dan Lo of http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com  for the great photos!

2009 Daytona 200 Part Two – Higbee #11

At the end of Thursday I was very relieved that the crew had updated the bike with a quick-fill frame setup and a new crate engine.  However, with the bike torn apart into hundreds of pieces just before qualifying it was essential to completely trust my crew that everything was right with the bike.  I had faith in my crews work but was very concerned about running the brand new engine WFO around Daytona with no break in time what so ever.  After two flying laps the engine coolant temp was screaming hot, the engine was in protest of the such cruel abuse.  Feeling some sense of self preservation and mercy for the engine I pulled in the pits for a minute to let the engine cool off.  Heading back out on track, I couldn’t help but visualize the high stresses due to point loading of the new and yet unmatched surfaces of many engine parts.  I was praying that the rings, cylinders, and bearing surfaces wouldn’t be damaged to the point of hurting engine performance.  At this point we hadn’t even touched the suspension setup, but somehow still managed to qualify for the Daytona 200 with something like a 1:50.8 lap time.  I felt like we had a second or two left in the bike but need time to get the chassis setup dialed-in.

Friday Morning we had a 30 minute warm-up session prior to the race. This would be our first and last chance to sort out the chassis setup.  Based on the bike performance in the qualifying session I had the crew drop the front 3mm to help the bike steering better on the corner entry and apex areas. The rear was a bit loose on corner entry but I knew that the bike balance would improve later in the race because we would be on the same front for the entire race distance.  When we put a new rear tire at the pit stops it should help to balance the bike so both ends slide together.  The other area for improvement was to gain rear drive grip on corner exits.  I was struggling to hook up the tire as well as some of the other bikes and felt like tuning the preload and compression damping could help.  Unfortunately we only made two laps in Friday’s practice session before the electric shifter broke into two pieces, dangling from the shift rod.  I was really looking forward to laying down some quick times in this session but things didn’t work out. 

Feeling a bit frustrated and sick I went back to the hotel to take some cold medication and rest for a bit before the opening ceremonies.  Michael had the crew working double time to get everything wrapped up before the start of the Daytona 200.  They worked on getting spare wheels mounted, tire warmers on, fuel jugs filled, pit stop tools laid out, an much more. The Opening ceremonies kicked off at around 7pm and after a brief walk up on stage to greet the fans I walked from the back of the grid up toward my 16th starting position.  It was amazing to walk up through the sea of people on the hot pit and past the majority of the huge field of eighty bikes. Dan Lo, of www.Cornerspeedphoto.com, really did a nice job of capturing the moment with his great pit lane photos. Check out his site for photos before and during the race.

The Daytona 200 kicked of at 8pm with an untraditional rolling start, NASCAR style.  I was a bit too conservative on the opening laps, credit card balances in mind, tires seemed a bit cold.  They were sliding around quite a bit initially, then started working once they came up to temperature.  It was critical that I finish, but still wanted to work my way to the front and mix it up with the boys.  So I started working my way up through the field, paused for a few laps to conserve some fuel when I came up on a group of 4 or 5 bikes to draft. Thanks to the James Gang radio’s I had excellent communication to my crew chief Mike Richter throughout the race.  I was excited when Mike gave me the green light to stop drafting and charge through the field.  As I picked up the pace I still needed to manage the brakes, coolant temperature, and front tire wear. Years of endurance experience has taught me how to conserve the bike and make sure it will make it to the end. 

The race was progressing well and then we had a couple of yellows and a brief red flag segment.  The field was bunched up and now was the perfect opportunity to lay down some good laps to get into position for the finish of the race.  Amazingly the effects of my head cold seemed to be temporarily suspended.  The Red bull energy drinks and the release of natural endorphins are a wonderful thing.  On the last restart, I could visualize a podium finish.  All I needed to do was to get a great start and stay in the draft of the lead pack.  The pace car pulled down pit lane and the bikes accelerated toward the green light with less than 10 laps to go.  As we approached turn one I was closing in on the lead pack, put my head down and charged into the international horseshoe, picked up the throttle at the apex to match the guys in front of me, but the tire was having none of that and spun up violently.  Reluctant to give up I stayed in the throttle for a bit too long, got it way sideways, and came out of the seat a bit when the tire finally gripped.  That moment was enough to lose touch with the leaders and now I was pushing air by myself.  At this point I just calmed down and settled into a reasonable pace to finish the race.  I was so pleased to hear that we cross the finish line 5th in the Daytona 200.  And to top it off it was extremely satisfying to be the top finishing Buell.  Booyah!!!!!! 

Thank you crew for a great result – Mike R, Mitsu, Bill, Mike F, Travis, John D, Jim, Paul J, Jeff, John B,Paul H, Mike H, and Marianne.

Willow Springs Roadrace 2/15/09

I’m sure glad the weather man was wrong!  They were predicting cold temperatures and significant rain.  I’ve never raced at Willow in the rain, and really was not looking forward to the wet conditions.  As it turned out the weather was clear.  However, the morning was mighty cold (33F) before aproaching a high of about 50F.  

Okay, so I’ll reel back in time to Thursday before the race.  It was late at night and just started to pack clothes, gear and parts in preparation to fly out to CA on Friday AM.  After 3 hours of sleep I was up and hit the road Friday at 5am.  Made it to the airport with my 3 year old daughter in tow just in time to catch our flight.  6 hours later we land in San Diego, rent a pickup truck and drive an hour to my girlfriend’s house.  I was pretty much bagged once arriving at Marianne’s so working on the bike didn’t seem like a good idea.  However, I was coerced into visiting the hair stylist for highlights and trim.  But managaged to sleep through most of the hair appointment, LOL!  Friday was complete now and only had Saturday to prepare the bike for the track.

 One of the biggest struggles with going racing as a privateer is dealing with the planning and preparation prior to an event.  I ended up working on the bike until about 1am the night before the race.   Normally I’d use the Bartel’s HD/Buell 1125R for WSMC events but Mitsu has the engine apart preparing it for Daytona.  So I ended up using the salvaged 1125R  that I’ve been fixing up.   The bike needed some work done to it before it could be raced at Willow.  I finally received a proper set of racing bodywork for it and needed to mount it.  As I learned from the Fontana test the stock brake pads caused alot of fading, so I installed a set of nissin 2015 racing pads.  Also removed the anti-rattle spring clips from the caliper to help reduce brake drag.  Packed the truck up with bike, gear and some spares, no 18 wheeler in sight.  Willow was a couple hours from Marianne’s house so after 2 hours of  sleet we were off to the track early Sunday morning. 

Marianne was a sweetheart and drove to the track so I could get a bit of sleep.  Once we arrived at the track, I downed a can of NOS energy drink to keep me awake.   Mitsu was right on time as always and helped Marianne and myself setting up the canopies and unloading the bike and gear.  After we set up the pit area, Mitsu went straight to work on changing out the rear shock, and going over the bike.  Steve and Sunny showed up and also helped getting the bike ready to go on track.  We went to start the bike right before the 1st practice session but the battery was dead. 

Marianne rushed off to the Autozone to pick up a new battery.    The new battery worked but I missed both practice sessions.  Wasn’t feeling very good at this point about no sleep, no practice and going straight into a race on a bike with new parts and an unknown setup.  The only thing I could do was enter the Open Superbike to use as a practice session.  So here I found myself up against liter bikes on a stock Buell1125R, 4 month old used slicks and all.  I knew it would be wise to hang back and let the field go off the line, but the Buell gets incredible launches and I wanted to show those Gixxers some 1125R taillight going into turn one.  And yes the 1125R delivered just as expected and pulled me from the 3rd row start up to about 4th place before turn one.  From that point I settled into a conservative pace to get a feel for the tire grip and gauge the how the setup was performing.  The tires were very used and sliding around quite a bit.  Not that I ever care to do this again but I thought it was amazing to finish 7th in a race when I hadn’t turned a lap of practice.  All I can say it that it was a rush going straight into a race with zero track time!

Okay so now it’s time to get down to business.  The goal was to win the Formula Twins Heavyweight and BOTT heavyweight classes and try my hand in Formula One with hopes of a top 10 finish.  The twins races went extremely well, with two holeshots and healthy margins of victory in both classes.  The setup on the bike was different than I was used to on the Bartels’ HD Buell 1125R, but was able to come to grips with it.  After 3 races I was starting to feel the effects of no sleep.  The Formula one race is 20 laps, and after a burst of fury in the opening laps, had to settle into a reasonable pace for the conditions.  On the opening lap I noticed that Tigert had a GoPro camera on his tailsection, so I was inclined to close up on him in turn 2 just so he  would have something to look at after the race 🙂 .  Ended up 5th in F1, not bad for a stock 1125, yet can’t wait till Will and the guys at Bartels’ pump this engine up so we run head to head for the win. 

Overall the Willow event was a successful struggle that provided some valuable seat time prior to Daytona.  It also showed how competitive the Buell 1125R is on the racetrack.  The new fairing mounting and ground clearance was good, new Shoei helmet felt perfect, the brake pads were much improved, and learned a few things about the suspension and chassis geometry configurations.  The next on-track activities will be at Daytona, the house of speed!

Going Privateer

Although I am no longer riding for RMR, luckily I have a back up plan…..well kinda.  In preparation for the 2009 season I purchased a Buell 1125R, and have been race prepping it in my girlfriend’s garage in California.  The plan was to use it for a test bike, but now it may become my primary racebike for Daytona.  I also recently got the race trailer out of storage and have been prepping it for travel as well.

Marianne and I went to Fontana recently for a Fastrack practice day to sort out the Buell and give her a chance check out her CBR 600RR on the track as well. I coached Marianne by leading and following her in the Level 1 sessions.  In the Level 3 sessions I was able to get the 1125R up to speed, with a dash displayed 165mph on Fontana’s front straight.  The testing and development experience that I’ve gained through my work at Buell has proven to be an advantage for me on the track.  I know the Buell 1125R chassis and suspension intimately and have a lot of confidence to get the most out of the bike.  But even with all of my experience, the  Fontana track surfaces challenged the damping specs that I used for the Daytona tire test.  Fortunately, now I know prior to the AMA national that a special valving spec will be needed to soak up the irregularities of the Fontana track surface.  Additionally, the rear tire grip was not what I expected, especially on the right side of the Dunlops.  Luckily I heard through the grapevine that a different Dunlop spec maybe used for the AMA event.  With Fontana only two weeks after Daytona, I’ll need to have a second set of suspension prepped and ready to swap. 

Ah the learnings and benefits from testing. Gotta love it.